Principles Don T Pay Tuition Fees When Ryland S Math Scholarship Disappears Overnight, He Has Two Choices He Can Borrow Money From Fellow Student Jason Burrows, Who Has Very Interesting Ways Of Collecting Debts Or, He Can Volunteer To Be Thrown To The Werelions One Night Spent Playing The Part Of A Willing Human Sacrifice Will Give Him Enough Money To Finish His PhD It Seems Like A Good Deal Right Up Until The Moment He Finds Himself Naked, Blindfolded, Bound And Surrounded By Lions Ok, We have the young student Ryland who needs money for collage fees he sells himself to the Lions for a night for 2000 Yes he is to be their sex thing for the night The Lions are shapeshifters and when naked and blindfolded Ryland arrives he is surprised to see a professor Arslan is the pride leader Arslan is a Dom and older and handsome Ryland is immediately glad the handsome SIR is thereArslan is delighted to see the timid student and immediately protects him from the rest of the pride and wont share him He wants Ryland as his mate PET , but a lot of misunderstandings and angst stand inhis way.I was surprised to find I really really liked it I was torn between a 3 and 4 star but gave it the 4 on originality My real complaint was how short the story was I was just getting into it and Bang, the end.It was like a the first couple of chapters from a book I think that this is kind of like an introducton to the characters and the series etc I hope so, and hope that the next installments will be full lenght books There are NO females in this book, NOT ONE Another first for me M M only. O My Lions Well this starts off pretty darn tense and edgy and ends in a tub of marshmallow fluff Voyeuristic beginning with some uncertain moments for Ryland, our adorable and lovable graduate student His attempts and egregious failure at communicating with Arslan Likewise, Arslan s equally tragic ability to communicate until something less desirable happens That said, there is some great tongue and cheek humor at the end love Ryland s family explanation and the outcome to his listening to the bad idea fairy.I swear, Dare has a way of selecting names that just peg other associations for me and Arslan had me setting this spinning off into some kinky Narnia with team fun on the Broken Table, but without the scissors and knives Trust me the side trip my brain took was highly entertaining if just a bit disturbing Overall, not amazing, but entertaining with the Dare s trademark possessive and loving D s Want to know what the rest of the kinky kitties will get up to in the subsequent books though figuring out Luther and Blaine shouldn t be hard and sweet, sweet Kefir HmmmFavorite passage Our traditions exist for a reason Don t dismiss them as if they were designed as an insult to you. A longer book from Kim Dare yay Okay, now for the real info This new series, revolving around werelions has much of the same style I have come to associate with K Dare Lots of introspection from the submissive in the relationship but not too much real soul searching from the Dominant partner I expect that It s probably a lot easier to come to terms with the dominant side of the power exchange but in this case I think we needed a little insight into Arslan Maybe not his need for dominance but certainly vision into the werelion persona Since the werelions as a species living among humans needs some world building to let us all understand the human werelion dynamic it could easily have come from Arslan via mental musing or his daily interactions Of course, standard for Kim alsothe sex scenes are hot, hot, hot Ryland was a great sympathetic character who made choices I could understand The BDSM Dom sub relationship is not as dramatic as in past Kim Dare books This felt much subtle even though the beginning was very dramatic and tense The secondary characters have stayed with me I feel they added to the scenes they were in rather than leading the scene astray I especially liked Kefir and can t wait for his book I didn t come away convinced that the whole werelion human dynamic was fully fleshed out for this series as this first book was written I don t really understand the reason that they bring humans into their den in the manner that they do What is the purpose for that What do the lions get out of it Does Arslan not know the people that procure these men Can he not contact them Does he really not know that these men are being paid to enter the lions den Lots of questions that were left unanswered but would have cleared up some of the decisions made and actions taken by both Ryland and Arslan Additionally, I am unsure of where the pride fits in with the world Do the other lions work Go to school What is young Arslan muses to himself about their youth quite often, but how young are they really The way Arslan interprets his interaction with humans makes it seem, except for his students, it s a rare thing for him to be in human presence It s like he has no idea how to understand humans and that seems unlikely unless there is a much larger werelion population than I originally thought The last thing I noticed is that there are no women mentioned in this book Are there no werelionesses Are there no female friends, students or colleagues for any of these men They mention not caring about gender relations but it doesn t explain the lack of women Not that I want any of them to be love interests, ewww but still, to have no female interaction anywhere in the book was confusing I have great expectations for this series as I can only imagine things will tighten up and holes will be plugged or explained Even though it may not seem like it, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am looking forward to the next three They can t come out soon enough for me. Oh Kim dare, won t you marry me I d like to cuddle in bed and look over your shoulder as you write your magically delicious stories Because seriously, it s magic I ve been in a reading slump for two weeks and BAM This book woke me up I haven t read a Kim dare story that I haven t loved so I should have expected this I m a sucker for shifter stories, gay or het and this story was great I wanted to climb Arslan like the stud he was the huggle Ryland cuz he was so damn cute I can t say enough good things about this story It made me happy Now I must go buy every Kim dare book I don t already own. I loved this story It s an interesting variation on a human shifter relationship where the shifter is so naturally dominant that he doesn t even consider another way of living He s not trying to prove anything like so many dominants it s just the natural order of things as far as he is concerned Until the human partner makes him re think all his values, that is.Ryland is a student who struggles financially because his family has disowned him a slight twist there as well When he agrees to be thrown to the lions for money to cover his tuition fees, he is very surprised at what he finds.It s difficult to say anything without giving too much away, so all I will say is that Kim Dare has created a new world of shifter human relationships where the interaction is dictated by ancient laws I found that idea fascinating and fresh I can t wait for the next volume to be released Ryland is a university student who s lost his funding and is in desperate need of money Faced with the choice of going to a loan shark with a scary reputation or spending one night with the lions, he chooses the lions.When he s delivered to them he s blindfolded, hands bound and completely naked Totally vulnerable and without a clue as to what is going to happen Ryland is surprised to find himself responding to the attentions of a man he can t see He s even surprised when the blindfold is removed and he sees Arslan, a Professor from his university.Arslan is the pride leader and a Dom As the night goes on the dynamics of the Dom sub relationship start to take hold as Ryland begins to relax and respond naturally to the older man All that changes however when Arslan makes Ryland an offer he desperately wants to accept but knows he can t, at least not until he s free to do so Unable to tell Arslan the truth he turns him down and the men part ways, each knowing they want to be with each other, but not how they ll achieve that.As usual with the author s stories the theme of D s is very well written even though it didn t feel as intense as some of her other works Ryland and Arslan s relationship was interesting to read and I especially liked that Ryland made his choices, some not as well thought out as others, but ultimately he was responsible for himself Arslan calls him his pet and sees himself as having to take care of Ryland yet at no time was Ryland under Arslan s thumb as can sometimes happen in D s stories Things happen to Ryland that normally would have the big strong Dom coming to the rescue but in this case the sub takes care of himself.I really enjoyed this first book in Kim Dare s new series I ve always liked shifter stories and I was intrigued with the concept of werelions The story didn t let me down There are still questions to be answered about this new world such as just how well known the lions are to humans as well as the reason that they have the thrown to the lions nights This first book in the series did it s job by capturing my interest I m looking forward to the next story. Ryland is a PHD math student trying to pay his way through college The economy drops and his scholarship is gone so he seeks out way to make cash He ends up being thrown to the lions Which essentially means he volunteers to be a human plaything offered to them However, he ends finding love with the sexy history Professor Arslan, who is also a werelion.Ok, here s the thing There are so many unanswered questions and things left unexplored It seems like Arslan has picked Ryland as his mate, yet Ryland ends up there purely by accident It also seems like there is a lot I m not quite understand about the lions did they live longer lives Is the structure of a pride the same as a wolf pack How does a human fit in Do they received some sort of extended life Also, Ryland s big conflict just didn t feel big enough to sustain the whole story Also, I don t quite know if Ryland had taken an interest in the professor prior to this book Plus, when compared to a lion, the bad guy in this story wasn t bad enough to arouse any true fear.I hope as this series continues, we come to learn about the Were lions. Why did not one tell me this was student teacher I hate student teacher even if the student is a PhD candidate, and the teacher is his professor I wanted sexy shifters I got student teacher, and what sounded like it might not have be, I didn t stick around to find out a fairly significant age gap also one of my least favorite things Not for me at all My disappointment might also stem from the fact the title might have lead me to believe that this would be some sort of sexy m nage, and that s what I really wanted. 2.5Usually, i love Kim Dare s style of story telling but this one was just unnecessarily complicated i just wanted to shake both the MCs and go Just talk to each other already, you nincompoops And i also didn t appreciate the disconnect that was portrayed between shifter and human behavior it felt artificial and forced and that happens when things are not backed by some sort of logic Even if the shifters were born as lions they primarily live in the human world and primarily in their human forms The lions behave as if they ve never set foot out of their house and have never interacted with humans apart from the pets thrown to them hmmm i guess the world building s a bit lacking that s why everything feels fuzzy and unreal and not in a good wayThat said, i liked Ryland s character a lot The way he stood up for what he believed was commendable